Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2146 for Friday December 14 2018rehash of the news JOURNEY OVER FOR AMSAT’S FOX-1 SATELLITE STEPHEN/ANCHOR: We open this week’s report with discouraging news for satellite enthusiasts who were looking forward to the commissioning of the newly launched Fox-1Cliff/AO-95 CubeSat Newsline reported last week that AMSAT-North America was preparing for it to become its fourth Fox-1 amateur radio satellite AMSAT’s vice president of engineering Jerry Buxton N-ZERO-J-Y announced that problems with the receiver discovered during the commissioning process has put an end to those plans The commissioning process began on Tuesday the 4th of December but is now at an end Jerry issued a statement on December 9th saying: Many of you have probably built a project and had to troubleshoot it on your bench we are in a troubleshooting situation here with the additional challenge of being 600 km away from our bench endquote Meanwhile he said engineers will continue to evaluate what happened NORTH CAROLINA HAMS CHANGE GIFT-GIVING TRADITION STEPHEN/ANCHOR: In this season of giving and sharing one ham radio club in North Carolina changed a holiday tradition and spread some needed cheer Paul Braun WD9GCO has that story PAUL: In local disasters national emergencies and even extreme weather events hams’ efforts at helping almost always shine In Gaston County North Carolina that was also the case recently when the Gaston County Amateur Radio Society decided they would make a difference – not by what they did but by what they did NOT do The hams have a tradition of hosting a gift exchange at their annual holiday party and it has come to be expected This year however was different When the group gathered for the festivities on Monday December 3rd hams like Pat N4DOX and Cy K1CY had already made a decision where their gift money was going to go They donated it instead to the Empty Stocking Fund operated by the local newspaper Gaston Gazette Cy told the newspaper quote “the idea was to do something for someone else There really is a big need out there” endquote The funds raised by the amateurs will be given to the Salvation Army who will purchase clothes toys and food for holiday meals for families and local seniors According to the newspaper this is one of many gestures the radio club has made in the county where they are always ready to respond to emergencies – large and small The newspaper wrote in its December 4 article: quote “The match between the Gaston County Amateur Radio Society and the Salvation Army is a good one: Both are ready to pitch in and help when needed” endquote For Amateur Radio Newsline I’m Paul Braun WD9GCO HISTORIC TRANSMITTER RETURNS TO AIR FOR HOLIDAY STEPHEN/ANCHOR: Another holiday tradition – this one involving a historic transmitter – will be back on the air in Sweden as we hear from Jeremy Boot G4NJH JEREMY: Christmas Eve morning will bring coffee cake and CW for radio enthusiasts who’ll be gathering at Sweden’s World Heritage Grimeton Radio Station for an annual tradition: the tuning up of the Alexanderson 200 kW transmitter a relic from 1924 to send out a Christmas message in CW on the VLF frequency of 172 kHz It is especially significant this year since organisers reluctantly announced the cancellation of last year’s scheduled message because maintenance work needed to be completed on the nearly one-hundred-year-old transmitter The radio station welcomes QSLs and listener reports for this special holiday message by email direct mail or bureau The email address is info at alexander dot n dot se infoalexandernse Meanwhile to mark the event amateur radio station SK6SAQ will be operating on three frequencies: using CW on 7035 kHz or 14035 kHz or using SSB on 3755 kHz Hams and other radio listeners unable to be present in Sweden will not be left out of course: the event will be broadcast live on YouTube as the message goes out at 0800 UTC or 9 am local time You will however have to supply your own coffee and cake LONG ISLAND CLUB HOSTS 2 SEASONAL ON-AIR EVENTS STEPHEN/ANCHOR: In New York the Great South Bay Amateur Radio Club believes there’s no place like being with hams for the holidays — so they’re hosting two events to celebrate the season Here’s Neil Rapp WB9VPG NEIL: What better way to celebrate Christmas than a 12 Days of Christmas Special Event Station This special event starts on Friday December 14th and runs for yes 12 days which would make it end on Christmas day Each day has its own special 1×1 callsign like W2P is the Partridge in a Pear Tree station or the W2L Nine Ladies Dancing station Collect as many days as you want and you can get a fabulous certificate if you work just one or more And of course you can go for the clean sweep of all 12! But if you do that’s a lot of birds 184 to be exact Lou Maggio NO2C tells us about how you can find this first time offering of the extra special event LOU: These are all operators that are seasoned We don’t have any people doing this that have never done anything like it before so we’re kind of letting them pick the bands pick the frequencies and then they’ll spot themselves The way I usually do it: SES and then 12 Days of Christmas and that generally is enough to attract anyone that wants to get the certificate NEIL: To get your certificate you’ll just need to upload your log in cabrillo format after the event is over But wait there’s more! On December 25th there’s an extra extra special event for those people like Lou and Newsline’s own Caryn Eve Murray KD2GUT who have birthdays on Christmas day Lou tells how the Christmas Birthday Special Event started LOU: Caryn and I are in the same club and we happened to have a conversation one day and realized we were both born on Christmas Day So we said ok let’s take and do a special event on VHF on Christmas day and see how many people check in And quite a few people checked in So we did it again the second year and it was even more popular So this year because we had so much luck with HF special events we said well let’s do it on HF this time So we figure we’ll do it on the 25th So anyone who actually has a birthday on the 25th and that includes Christmas babies Boxing Day babies New Years Eve babies anybody who has a holiday related birthday in around the 25th we’re hoping will check in and then they’ll be able to download a certificate from our website commemorating the contact And we’re going to probably be on any frequency that ends 25 3825 7225 14325 are the ones that we’re going to be calling on And we’ll be spotting on the cluster also NEIL: So listen for the 12-days of Christmas stations starting on December 14th and for K2B on December 25th Fire up those rigs warm your hands to the glow of the amplifier and have fun with these two special events And from all of us here at Newsline we wish our editor Caryn a very Merry Birthday WHEN A QSL CARD BRINGS CALLSIGN DEJA VU STEPHEN/ANCHOR: It’s not unusual for one ham’s transceiver to show up in another ham’s shack one ham’s antenna to find its way across the country to another ham who needed it or even an old treasured straight key given away by someone who doesn’t need it any longer But a ham in Oklahoma and a ham in California recently learned they shared something entirely different as Mike Askins KE5CXP explains MIKE: On November 25 2018 Mike Olsen NQ6C and Roger Simpson K5RKS had a QSO on 17 meters at 1831 UTC using FT8 mode Not long after Mike received Roger’s QSL card and something else – a second older QSL card in the same envelope which left Mike feeling as if he were looking into a mirror Mike told Newsline in an email: quote “The first QSL card on top had NQ6C which was my call sign but it wasn’t one of my cards” endquote Mike was assigned the call sign earlier this year and clearly this QSL card went back much further in time than that His temporary confusion ended when he looked at the other QSL card – the one from their recent contact – and saw that Roger had written at the very bottom: “What a surprise to work my old call!” It turns out Roger had been assigned the call sign in November of 1982 after passing his Extra Class exam at the FCC’s San Francisco office Mike of course had no clue about its history when it became his turn to be assigned the call sign in March It’s not every day you get to connect with your digital doppelganger Now says Mike NQ6C has not just become a treasured call sign and QSL card but a piece of personal history — and he might just have this card framed For Amateur Radio Newsline I’m Mike Askins KE5CXP YLRL AWARDS SCHOLARSHIPS TO 3 PROMISING AMATEURS STEPHEN/ANCHOR: The Young Ladies’ Radio League has just awarded three promising amateurs with scholarships to continue their studies as we hear from Heather Embee KB3TZD HEATHER: Readers of YL-Harmonics the official publication of the Young Ladies’ Radio League were greeted by three smiling faces on the cover of the group’s November-December issue: Jordyn Mann W1KXJ Anna Veal W0ANT and Trina Boyce KI6GZG all have good reason to smile They have all been named YLRL Scholarship winners receiving gifts that honor three Silent Keys: Ethyl Smith K4LMB Martha Wessel K0EPE and Mary Lou Brown NM7N Jordyn is a computer science major at MIT and has been an intern at NASA Anna a graduate of the STEM high school in Highlands Ranch Colorado plans to study computer science at the University of Colorado She is also a past winner of Amateur Radio Newsline’s Young Ham of the Year award Trina who is a doctoral candidate at Colorado Technical University has two master’s degrees and teaches online as an adjunct professor at Brigham Young University Applications will be open soon for the 2019 scholarships and are due by April For more information check the website of the Foundation for Amateur Radio at farweb dot org farweborg Meanwhile congratulations to this year’s winners WORLD OF DX In this week’s world of DX be listening for Ben DL6RAI who is operating in Aruba as P4/DL6RAI You can listen for him until the 27th of December on 160 and 80 meters QSL via Club Log’s OQRS LoTW or via his home call In Curacao Anders SM4KYN will be active as PJ2/SM4KYN through the 14th of January Send QSLs direct to his home call In Antarctica Felix DL5XL is active again as DP1POL from the German research station Neumayer III until February 2019 He is operating mainly CW and digital modes Send QSLs via DL-ONE-ZED Bee Oh DL1ZBO direct or by the bureau and on LoTW Starting on the 26th of December Chie 7L3PFH be active as KH0TG from Tinian in the Mariana Islands where she will be operating until the 1st of January She will operate CW and SSB on 160 through 20 meters QSL direct to JL1UTS KICKER: WHEN DXING TAKES A DETOUR STEPHEN/ANCHOR: We end this week’s report with a story of some DXing that took a detour For one ham in Austria the childhood chase of a QSL card brought home a very unexpected message Ed Durrant DD5LP tells that story ED: In an interview recently with the Austrian state broadcaster ORF Erich Moechel OE3EMB shared the story of his pursuit of a QSL card back when he was a 16-year-old schoolboy It happened in the early 1970s – during the Cold War – after he and a friend had become devoted shortwave listeners starting first as broadcast DXers ERICH: We would sit there and listen and it was all Cold War blaring into the household at that time Voice of American on one side Radio Liberty on the same side – and on the other side Radio Peace and Progress from Moscow and numerous other strong strong stations all around Europe Every day the postman would bring at least one QSL card for a while because I had spent all my pocket money on stamps ED: After getting their fill of pop and rock on pirate radio and receiving signals and QSL cards from China Cuba and Russia Erich and his friend looked elsewhere for more exciting and interesting reception reports ERICH: Both of us became utility DXers Normally by law it was somehow in the gray zone in Austria It was de facto forbidden to listen to phone calls and we wouldn’t do that ED: Still there were definite concerns outlined in the shortwave listening newsletters the boys received ERICH: There were warnings in these newsletters not to send reception reports to certain stations Amongst them was Cable and Wireless in London and Norddeich Radio in Germany ED: One day by accident however he intercepted a conversation without knowing he was hearing the German Federal Intelligence Service and the UK’s Secret Service a shortwave exchange not meant for the public Still he and his friend wondered: since they get such beautiful QSL cards from Cable and Wireless in Central Africa and Liberia why not London So they sent their reception reports – but instead of getting a card Erich’s parents received a formal complaint: Officials from the Austrian Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications in Vienna had been contacted by officials in Germany and the UK They warned: Erich must stop listening or face confiscation of his radio equipment ERICH: Only very much later I learned that these were the centers of radio communication in England and Germany and it was the secret service guys checking everything and promoting a policy of intimidation ED: Erich now spends his time on HF and he’s pursuing QSL cards as a seasoned ham He notes on his page on QRZcom that his policy is “ultra relaxed” when it comes to QSL cards People can send them – or not “Just say hello the next time we meet on the bands” he writes In case you’re wondering cards from shortwave listeners are always welcome too

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